


Partners

by No1fan15



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Happy Ending, M/M, some feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-10 12:58:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12299718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/No1fan15/pseuds/No1fan15
Summary: Partners. That's what they were. So why did he run away?





	Partners

One would think that you wouldn't be able to have too many regrets in under an hour. Jeice knew better. 

As he sped away from the carnage his mind raced at a similar speed. He had to warn the captain, of course, because a stranger adorned in orange and blue had just taken out the rest of the team. His friends were dead. He always knew the risks, they all did, but none the less the reality of the situation was starting to hit. He felt his throut close up and tears prick at the corners of his eyes.

He was close with all of them. Knew all their secrets. All their favorite things. All their goals. Most of all he knew their loyalty. The captain was all he had left now. Yet he felt like something was wrong. He couldn't shake the idea that maybe one of his teammates had still been alive when he left. The idea that he had betrayed them. That he had left them to die in the dirt. 

He held back a sob and tried to compose himself. He couldn't face the captain if he was crying. The wind rushing past his face dried his tears within moments. From the outside he seemed to be a dignified soldier. On the inside he felt broken. The thoughts wouldn't leave. Especially the ones concerning Burter.

Jeice clenched his fists as he remembered what the strange warrior had done to his partner. He had been left on the ground with nary a second look. Tossed to the side like nothing. The memory filled Jeice with rage. How dare the stranger treat his partner like that. How dare he barely acknowledge the man Jeice had spent years knowing and caring about. The man he cared about more than anyone else in the universe. 

Everyone else had seen them as partners and nothing more. Good friends who worked together. Yet whenever they had a moment alone there had been the spark of something more. It had taken several months before they talked about it. Once they did they found they couldn't stop. Private channels on their scouters were the means of long conversations during travel between planets. Talks about their lives past and present. Talks about their future.

Rarely would they get time off. Even more scarce were times when their breaks weren't spent with the team watching soap operas and eating sweet treats. Those times were when their talks were whispered out of the fear of being discovered. The times when they would take in the world around them and wonder what it would be like if their lives had been different. Jeice would talk about his little league days. A good time in his life. Burter rarely spoke up about his past but when he did it was always to Jeice.

They were partners in everything. Even secrets. That's why Jeice was the only one to know that most of Buters scars came from his mother. Scars he was ashamed of. Scars he only let Jeice see. Scars Jeice had memorized the shape of. He had his own scars but they were nothing compared to his partner. 

They weren't good people. They both knew and accepted this fact. They had done horrible things both under orders and by their own free will. They couldn't change that. They never could. At least they had each other. That was enough for them. Other people cared about them but not in the way they cared for one another. A teamwork building exercise pales in comparison to kisses hidden in the dark. 

And yet he had run. 

That fact snapped Jeice back into reality as he continued to fly onwards. He hadn't even hesitated to retreat when the chance his partner was still alive was there. He steeled his nerves as he landed in front of the captain. He would save those thoughts for later.  

 

There wasn't a "later."

Jeice had died. Killed by Vegeta of all people. Now he wasn't sure where he was. Some sort of afterlife. He couldn't see much beyond a white void and hear muffled voices around him. This was the time he decided to spend dwelling on those thoughts. Before any sort of judgement could be passed on his soul he had already decided he deserved hell. All the emotions he had held down came back full force. And he breaks again.

No longer concerned with appearances he curls onto a ball and screams until he runs out of breath. His face is wet with tears and he makes no effort to clear them. He is a coward. He always has been. He cries for his friends. He cries for his partner. Never for himself. After what feels like forever his tears run out. He shakes until he can move no more and barely notices the light around him changing. 

He feels a hand on his shoulder and hardly dares to believe. He knows that hand. Large and rough but oh so gentle. Claws that could kill trail lightly on his skin. He looks up and sees his partner. And he smiles for the first time in what feels like eternity. Because he's with his partner again. He knows they're both dead but he couldn't care less. They're together. And that's all that matters. 


End file.
